^{Photo Credit: Incredible Pakistan}

The Biafo–Hispar trek, often called the Snow Lake trek, is one of the most epic glacier traverses outside the polar regions.

The route links two of Pakistan’s most remote mountain regions, Baltistan and Hunza, by crossing one of the longest continuous glacier systems outside the polar areas.

You start out in a tiny mountain village called Askole, then hike up the Biafo Glacier for days, camp out in remote spots like Namla and Baintha, and eventually make your way to Snow Lake, a massive basin of ice that feels like you’ve landed on another planet.

From there, you cross over the Hispar Pass, over 17,000 feet (around 5,150 m), and drop down onto the Hispar Glacier.

The whole route is about 60+ miles (100 km) of ice and rock, with no villages or tea houses along the way. You’re completely off the grid the entire time, which is part of what makes it so special.

It’s not an easy trek, though, there are crevasses, shifting moraines, high-altitude passes, and the kind of cold that hits deep, even in summer.

The views are unreal.

You’ve got jagged peaks like the Ogre and the Latoks towering around you, and at times it’s so quiet, all you hear is the crunch of your boots on ice.

This isn’t a trip for beginners, it’s remote, high, and physically demanding.

You’ll need to be comfortable on glaciers, have some technical skills, and be ready to spend a few weeks unplugged and surrounded by nothing but mountains and ice. But if that sounds like your kind of thing, this is one of the wildest, most beautiful treks out there.

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